How to Work with Faculty

Conducting research and working under the mentorship of a faculty advisor can be a rewarding experience that helps students to gain insight into the research process; learn problem solving skills and sometimes find opportunities for publication. Getting involved in research as an undergraduate can also be a critical prerequisite for a future graduate school application.

Students will often ask: how do I get started? How do I speak with a faculty member about their lab? The list below are suggestions for acquainting yourself with faculty and the scholarly work conducted at Rice.

  1. Review Faculty Research Interests. Learn what types of research faculty are conducting. Look at biographies to see if your research interests might align.
  2. Take a class in an area you’re interested in. Consider enrolling a faculty member’s class who you have researched and consider their work to be interesting. Establishing familiarity with a faculty member’s work will help confirm or dispel your interests and can help provide a building block for engaging with a faculty research project later.
  3. Don’t be discouraged! Faculty receive a lot of emails every day. You may need to respectfully follow up or look to some of the Pathways to Practice below as a way to build your research portfolio first.

Pathways to Practice

The resources below aim to acquaint students with additional research opportunities across campus.